Bibliography: novels

I also write fiction under other names, most notably Nick Gifford, whose young adult novels have been published by Puffin and optioned for the movies by big-name producers. For details of Nick's work, see the Nick Gifford website.

Parasites: The Kon-tiki Quartet, book two by Eric Brown and Keith Brooke (2018)Lovely to be collaborating with Eric again! This is the second in a set of four novellas following humankind's efforts to colonise the stars.

Dislocations: The Kon-tiki Quartet, book one by Eric Brown and Keith Brooke (2018)Lovely to be collaborating with Eric again! This is the first in a set of four novellas, starting on an Earth struggling to deal with the impact of climate change, and following humankind's efforts to launch out and colonise the stars.

Riding the Serpent's Back (2014)Yes, I've committed Big Fat Fantasy! This one actually has its origins in a short story of the same name, published in Interzone in 1995, and reprinted in my collection Memesis. The story was set on an island set in a sea of molten lava on a colony planet; as sometimes happens, a story doesn't lose its grip on my imagination even when it's been written and I started to realise there was something bigger here, and that this world with its molten sea would make a terrific setting for an epic fantasy. Once I'd made that leap, the rest of the world started to fall into place, and the obvious kind of story to set here was an end of era story, with the world and its people threatened by catastrophe.

alt.human / Harmony (2012)Note the two titles for this one: the publisher's marketing team in North America preferred one title; the European team preferred the other; and everyone ended up confused... With this one I decided it was time for me to tackle some of the big ideas of SF. Like alternate history. And aliens. And the Fermi Paradox. So I did it: all in one book. And what's more, the novel was shortlisted for the Philip K Dick Award, which was hugely encouraging!

The Unlikely World of Faraway Frankie (2010)A short fantasy novel with its roots in my short story 'Beside the Sea'. Frankie retreats from the traumas of his life by losing himself in day-dreams. That's all very well until those dreams start to materialise around him, and his home town warps into a fantastical version of the real place.

The Accord (2009)I always said there was a novel in this. It grew from a background shared by three stories, 'The Accord', 'Sweats' and 'The Man Who Built Heaven', each of which forms part of the novel to one degree or another. It's a thriller about the life and love of Noah Barakh, the man who built a virtual world where people can live on after death, a secular heaven. When you're immortal a vendetta can last a long time...

Genetopia (2006)This one was a long time coming. It dates back to my second professional sale, a story called 'Passion Play' which was published in Robert Holdstock and Christopher Evans' Other Edens III back in 1989. As soon as I wrote that story I knew I had to explore its warped future of accelerated and distorted evolution at novel-length. I spent over a decade thinking about it, and at last it's finished and with a publisher. Of course, the finished novel bears almost no resemblance whatsoever to the story that triggered it. The response to it has been fantastic, with Pyr's first ever starred review in Publishers Weekly, praise from Kit Reed, Michael Swanwick, Peter Hamilton, Jeff VanderMeer and Stephen Baxter, and a review in Locus which concluded, "Let Keith Brooke tell his tale in its cogent fullness. It is beyond any facile summary, a minor masterpiece that should usher Brooke at last into the recognized front ranks of SF writers."

Lord of Stone (1997)I believe this one was actually listed in a Gollancz catalogue back in the early 1990s, but they pulled out without ever explaining their reasons. This is the best novel I've written, a post-war fantasy about the death of magic in an increasingly secular world, and I'm delighted that it's finally found a home.

Expatria Incorporated (1991)The second part of the Expatria story, about the culture clash when a ship from Earth arrives to spread the gospel of the Holy Church of GenGen. I rate this as the best of my three novels published in the early 1990s.

Expatria (1991)A far future adventure romp, set in a world that has lost contact with Earth, and rejected the ways of science and technology.

Keepers of the Peace (1990)My angry young man novel. A near-future anti-militaristic cyber-thriller, camouflaged so successfully as the kind of writing that provoked it that at least one critic dismissed it as a right wing military wet dream. I take that as a kind of back-handed compliment. I think. Locus liked it: Tom Whitmore said it was several years since a first novel had grabbed him the way KotP did, with writing that 'recalls the 1950s Heinlein'; Faren Miller called it a 'gripping story of challenge and skin-of-the-teeth survival'.

Genetopia

The wilds: a world where genes mutate and migrate between species through plague and fever, but that's where Flint must go... "A minor masterpiece that should usher Brooke at last into the recognized front ranks of SF writers" (Locus)

Frankie is a boy who retreats from the harsh struggles of day-to-day life into daydreaming. But then... as Frankie's humiliations mount up, more and more elements from his faraway fantasy world start to appear in the real one. Can he use his imaginary world to escape? Can he learn how to construct the world around him from his dreams, and so get some kind of control over his life?

When Noah and Priscilla escape into the Accord, Priscilla's murderous husband plots to destroy the whole Accord and them with it. Where does the pursuit of revenge stop for immortals in an eternal world?

An old era is drawing to a close, a new era about to begin, and the great mage Donn has passed on his Talents to a new generation. When a rogue church leader threatens to set loose wild powers, Donn's children must oppose him but, also, they must contend with Donn himself: the old mage has not finished with his children yet. A fantasy epic of revolution, jealousy and earth-shattering magic.

You're not paranoid if they really are after you. Someone is messing with Liam's world. All the rules have changed and his life has unravelled completely. What he does know is that someone is watching him. There are no bystanders in this terrifying game. "An exciting, fast paced book that will have you on the edge of your seat until the last page." Word Up

Tomorrow: a future only you can see; a future only you can save... Tomorrow: an emotion- and time-tangled thriller set in the War Against Chronological Terror. Tomorrow: when three teenagers may have the power to save or destroy a world that is yet to be.

Explores the sub-genres of science fiction from the perspectives of a dozen top SF authors, combining a critical viewpoint with exploration of the challenges and opportunities facing authors working in SF today.

An old era is drawing to a close, a new era about to begin, and the great mage Donn has passed on his Talents to a new generation. When a rogue church leader threatens to set loose wild powers, Donn's children must oppose him but, also, they must contend with Donn himself: the old mage has not finished with his children yet. A fantasy epic of revolution, jealousy and earth-shattering magic.

As a TV crew prepares to film the story of the lost prince's tomb, 12-year-old Jools Bone and his new friends Ned, Helen and Billy face a life and death rush to prevent history repeating itself. A dark and wickedly funny story by "the king of children's horror" (Sunday Express).

Tomorrow: a future only you can see; a future only you can save... Tomorrow: an emotion- and time-tangled thriller set in the War Against Chronological Terror. Tomorrow: when three teenagers may have the power to save or destroy a world that is yet to be.

A lost colony, rediscovered by descendants of its original investors... When the expedition from the Holy Corporation of GenGen arrives on Expatria, for some it looks like salvation from a backward-looking, superstition-ridden society, but for others, it looks suspiciously like an invasion. "In the recognized front ranks of SF writers" Locus

Shortlisted for the Philip K Dick Award. (Note: the US title is Harmony; elsewhere it's alt.human.) The aliens are here. They always have been. And now, one by one, they're destroying our cities. In a world where nothing is as it seems, where humans are segregated and aliens can sing realities and tear worlds apart, a ragged band of survivors may be the only hope for humankind.

Explores the sub-genres of science fiction from the perspectives of a dozen top SF authors, combining a critical viewpoint with exploration of the challenges and opportunities facing authors working in SF today.

Multiple personalities fighting for control of a single body; a single personality constantly splitting and reinventing itself and its past; a Mars that never was; an interstellar war that has always been.

Frankie is a boy who retreats from the harsh struggles of day-to-day life into daydreaming. But then... as Frankie's humiliations mount up, more and more elements from his faraway fantasy world start to appear in the real one. Can he use his imaginary world to escape? Can he learn how to construct the world around him from his dreams, and so get some kind of control over his life?

When Noah and Priscilla escape into the Accord, Priscilla's murderous husband plots to destroy the whole Accord and them with it. Where does the pursuit of revenge stop for immortals in an eternal world?

You're not paranoid if they really are after you. Someone is messing with Liam's world. All the rules have changed and his life has unravelled completely. What he does know is that someone is watching him. There are no bystanders in this terrifying game. "An exciting, fast paced book that will have you on the edge of your seat until the last page." Word Up

The wilds: a world where genes mutate and migrate between species through plague and fever, but that's where Flint must go... "A minor masterpiece that should usher Brooke at last into the recognized front ranks of SF writers" (Locus)

Danny is terrified of being like his father, who ended up in prison after a night of savage violence. But then he finds his father's diary and uncovers his dark thoughts - and even darker secrets. Who was whispering to his father, goading him, leading him on? And what if they are coming back for Danny? "The king of children's horror..."Sunday Express

Matt's home life is falling to pieces as his mother seeks refuge from divorce by returning to the seaside town where she grew up. Separated from his friends, bored and discontented, Matt gradually becomes aware that his mother's family are the keepers of a terrifying secret. "Another great teen thriller." Spot On

Transported to a world inhabited by vampires, Ben befriends a girl called Rachel. She takes him to her farm to prove she's not like the other vampires, but that's when he discovers a terrible secret. And why is the book called Piggies? That's the worst horror of all. "Ingenious... this chilling story reads with all the power and demented logic of a thoroughly bad dream." The Independent

The descendants of Expatria's first colonists from Earth have rejected technology. When Mathias Hanrahan joins a team trying to relearn the ancient technologies, against a background of impending war, he discovers that strange messages are coming from space.

Arrival of the recontact mission from the Holy Corporation of GenGen on the formerly-lost colony world Expatria further complicates an already murderously complex web of religious and political intrigue. For some, it looks like salvation from a backward-looking, superstition-ridden society; for others, it looks suspiciously like an invasion.

Jed Brindle is an alien. At least, that's what they call him on Earth. He's really a colony-bred soldier - augmented with cyborg implants - with the Extraterran Peacekeeping Force, fighting for control of what used to be the United States.